The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-09-24
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

1t is said that more gold pens are
made in New York than in all other
cities in the world.
An ornithological expedition to the
country about Kina-bula, the great flat
topped mountain of Borneo. has re-
suited in the discovery of twenty-one
new species of birds, including what is
described as splendid new broadbiil.
The Charleston NeUS and Courier
urges that the South should manufact-
ure every pound of cotton grown on
its fields, and thus derive the whole
profit from its principal agricultural
product
There are 937 blast furnaces in OPP
Grafton in the United States, producing
1875, $50 tons per week, and 313 idle,
with weekly capacity of, 122. 042 tons.
The anthracite capacity has increased
from SO, 602 tons weekly year ago to
1928 now.-PubLic Opinion
Some instructive observations on
the supposed anti-malarial influence
exerted by sunfowers have been made
by the editor of the Monthly Journal of
PGrnaacy who has found that a quarter
of an acre of sunfowers will exhale in
the form of vapor sixty-fve gallons of
water day. This was in June, at
place where the mean midday tempera-
ture was only seventy degrees Fahren-
heit
Stormy Seas.-The annual average
of dangerous storms in different seas
and CULTS haS been tabulated by Mr.. w.
Doberck, of the Holg Kong observa-
tory. as follows: Arabian sea, 20; Bay
of Bengal, 115; Southern Indian ocean,
So; Java sea, II; China sea, PA; Gulf
of Mexico, 355. In the Antilles the
maximum frequency is in August; in
the China sea, December; Java sea and
Southern Indian ocean, February; Bay
of Bengal. October; Arabian sea, June.
-ArbanSaW Traveller.
BY observing how far the sun has
to sink beneath the horizon before the
topmost summit of the air is cut off
from its rays, the conclusion has been
arrived at that the greatest upward
limit of twilight is some $4,000 feet,
or nearly seventy-one miles above the
sea level. II is well-known fact that,
by observing the earth's shadow on the
moon during the time of eclipses, the
inference came to be held by astrono-
mers that the atmosphere must be suffi-
GENTLY dense to produce twilight tor at
least 240, 200 feet away from the earth's
surface. Boston Budget
German scientists have discovered
worm that devours steel rails. Rail-
road accidents at Hagan led to an in
vestigation of the rails. After six
months had elapsed the surface of the
rails appeared to be corroded, as if by
acid, to the extent of 100 yards. The
rail was taken up and broken, and it
was perceived that it was literally hol-
lowed out by thin gray worm 1t is
two centimeters in length and of the
size of the prong of a silver fork in cir
conference. 1t is of light gray color
and on the head carries two little
glands filled with corrosive secretion
which is elected every ten minutes
upon the iron.
Observations at Rothamsted, the
celebrated farm of Sir John B. Lawes,
in England, show that with an annual
rainfall of little less than thirty-two
iuche5, each acre of land receives over
fourteen pounds of pure chlorine every
year in the rain water, or as much chlo-
inc as is contained in twenty-four
mounds of common salt Tho SIl1phIric
acid which the soil receives from the
same source amounts to upwards of
seventeen pounds per acre annually,
and the ammonia between two and
three pounds. Thus it will be seen that
the rain possesses distinct fertilizing
properties apart from the necessary
moisture which it supplies.-M Y
Ledger.